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Performance of an Emergency Road Ambulance Service in Bhutan: Response Time, Utilization, and Outcomes
Background: An efficient ambulance service is a vital component of emergency medical services. We determined the emergency ambulance response and transport times and ambulance exit outcomes in Bhutan. Methods: A cross-sectional study involving real-time monitoring of emergency ambulance deployments...
Autores principales: | , , , , , , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
MDPI
2022
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9227530/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35736966 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/tropicalmed7060087 |
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author | Tshokey, Tshokey Tshering, Ugyen Lhazeen, Karma Abrahamyan, Arpine Timire, Collins Gurung, Bikash Subedi, Devi Charan Wangdi, Kencho Vilas, Victor Del Rio Zachariah, Rony |
author_facet | Tshokey, Tshokey Tshering, Ugyen Lhazeen, Karma Abrahamyan, Arpine Timire, Collins Gurung, Bikash Subedi, Devi Charan Wangdi, Kencho Vilas, Victor Del Rio Zachariah, Rony |
author_sort | Tshokey, Tshokey |
collection | PubMed |
description | Background: An efficient ambulance service is a vital component of emergency medical services. We determined the emergency ambulance response and transport times and ambulance exit outcomes in Bhutan. Methods: A cross-sectional study involving real-time monitoring of emergency ambulance deployments managed by a central toll-free (112) hotline (20 October 2021 to 20 January 2022) was carried out. Results: Of 5092 ambulance deployments, 4291 (84%) were inter-facility transfers, and 801 (16%) were for emergencies. Of the latter, 703 (88%) were for non-pregnancy-related emergencies (i.e., medical, surgical, and accidents), while 98 (12%) were for pregnancy-related emergencies. The median ambulance response and patient transport times were 42 (IQR 3–271) and 41 (IQR 2–272) minutes, respectively. The median round-trip distance travelled by ambulances was 18 km (range 1–186 km). For ambulance exit outcomes that were pregnancy-related (n = 98), 89 (91%) reached the health facility successfully, 8 delivered prior to ambulance arrival at the scene or in the ambulance during transport, and 1 had no outcome record. For the remaining 703 non-pregnancy deployments, 29 (4.1%) deployments were deemed not required or refusals, and 656 (93.3%) reached the health facility successfully; 16 (2.3%) died before the ambulance’s arrival at the scene, and 2 (0.3%) were not recorded. Conclusions: This first countrywide real-time operational research showed acceptable ambulance exit outcomes. Improving ambulance response and transport times might reduce morbidities and mortalities further. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-9227530 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2022 |
publisher | MDPI |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-92275302022-06-25 Performance of an Emergency Road Ambulance Service in Bhutan: Response Time, Utilization, and Outcomes Tshokey, Tshokey Tshering, Ugyen Lhazeen, Karma Abrahamyan, Arpine Timire, Collins Gurung, Bikash Subedi, Devi Charan Wangdi, Kencho Vilas, Victor Del Rio Zachariah, Rony Trop Med Infect Dis Article Background: An efficient ambulance service is a vital component of emergency medical services. We determined the emergency ambulance response and transport times and ambulance exit outcomes in Bhutan. Methods: A cross-sectional study involving real-time monitoring of emergency ambulance deployments managed by a central toll-free (112) hotline (20 October 2021 to 20 January 2022) was carried out. Results: Of 5092 ambulance deployments, 4291 (84%) were inter-facility transfers, and 801 (16%) were for emergencies. Of the latter, 703 (88%) were for non-pregnancy-related emergencies (i.e., medical, surgical, and accidents), while 98 (12%) were for pregnancy-related emergencies. The median ambulance response and patient transport times were 42 (IQR 3–271) and 41 (IQR 2–272) minutes, respectively. The median round-trip distance travelled by ambulances was 18 km (range 1–186 km). For ambulance exit outcomes that were pregnancy-related (n = 98), 89 (91%) reached the health facility successfully, 8 delivered prior to ambulance arrival at the scene or in the ambulance during transport, and 1 had no outcome record. For the remaining 703 non-pregnancy deployments, 29 (4.1%) deployments were deemed not required or refusals, and 656 (93.3%) reached the health facility successfully; 16 (2.3%) died before the ambulance’s arrival at the scene, and 2 (0.3%) were not recorded. Conclusions: This first countrywide real-time operational research showed acceptable ambulance exit outcomes. Improving ambulance response and transport times might reduce morbidities and mortalities further. MDPI 2022-05-31 /pmc/articles/PMC9227530/ /pubmed/35736966 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/tropicalmed7060087 Text en © 2022 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). |
spellingShingle | Article Tshokey, Tshokey Tshering, Ugyen Lhazeen, Karma Abrahamyan, Arpine Timire, Collins Gurung, Bikash Subedi, Devi Charan Wangdi, Kencho Vilas, Victor Del Rio Zachariah, Rony Performance of an Emergency Road Ambulance Service in Bhutan: Response Time, Utilization, and Outcomes |
title | Performance of an Emergency Road Ambulance Service in Bhutan: Response Time, Utilization, and Outcomes |
title_full | Performance of an Emergency Road Ambulance Service in Bhutan: Response Time, Utilization, and Outcomes |
title_fullStr | Performance of an Emergency Road Ambulance Service in Bhutan: Response Time, Utilization, and Outcomes |
title_full_unstemmed | Performance of an Emergency Road Ambulance Service in Bhutan: Response Time, Utilization, and Outcomes |
title_short | Performance of an Emergency Road Ambulance Service in Bhutan: Response Time, Utilization, and Outcomes |
title_sort | performance of an emergency road ambulance service in bhutan: response time, utilization, and outcomes |
topic | Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9227530/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35736966 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/tropicalmed7060087 |
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